


Memories

by MelyndaR



Series: Don't Fear the Fall [4]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:01:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: “B’Elanna’s making this bigger than I am,” Commander Chakotay said with a lopsided smile. “I just think it would be nice for Naomi to be able to hear more about her father."
Relationships: B'Elanna Torres & Naomi Wildman, Greskrendtregk/Samantha Wildman, Naomi Wildman & Samantha Wildman
Series: Don't Fear the Fall [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552054
Kudos: 2





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Out of the three short stories that I wanted to write before I officially finished this series at the ending of "Viability," this is what survives. I couldn't make the Naomi and Miral story work within the timeline, much to my disappointment, and I decided that it was a lot easier for placement of the stories within the three series/trilogies to just add the relevant details of the Sam/Gres story to this story. So, here you have it! Enjoy!

_ 2377: _ ****

“Come in,” Samantha called, looking up from her book manuscript when the chime at her quarters sounded. 

It was late, Naomi was already in bed, and off the top of her head, Samantha assumed that her visitor was someone from the xenobiology lab coming to her with a question or new note. 

It was nothing of the sort. When the door slid open to reveal Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres, Samantha automatically moved onto her feet, greeting, “Commander, Lieutenant, is everything okay?”

“Fine, yes,” Commander Chakotay answered, waving her back into her seat. 

Samantha gestured them towards her couch, then, reclaiming her seat as she asked a little more formally than she otherwise might have, “What can I do for you, then?”

There was an air of expectation surrounding her old friends; she had a feeling they were here for a purpose, and her suspicion was proven correct when, as they sat, Commander Chakotay said, “B’Elanna and I were talking about Naomi – about how, recently, Gres has come up in conversation with a little more frequency.”

“I’d noticed,” Samantha admitted expectantly. “Especially with Father’s Day being last week.” She drew in a deep breath, looking down at her hands. “Neelix told me the conversation he had with Naomi was very… public, and… blunt.” She met the commander’s eyes, finally asking, “Why?”

Commander Chakotay hesitated before answering frankly, “B’Elanna and I were wondering if it might help Naomi to hear stories about her father.”

Samantha blinked at him and Lieutenant Torres before looking around her own living room, where holoimages of herself and Gres were displayed in abundance alongside replicated Ktarian art and artifacts. “I tell her stories about Gres, about his family and mine, about our different cultures, and people, and traditions. I even tried after that incident with the little mixed-species girl to take Naomi to the holodeck and introduce her to a holographic rendition of her father. She hated it because she knew it wasn’t the real man, and I don’t think it would be helpful to try again.” Samantha forced herself to look back towards Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres, afraid she might see judgement in their faces as she asked, “What do you hope your stories would do that mine can’t?”

Commander Chakotay shook his head. “It’s not like that, Sam…antha. I think your stories about Gres are some of the best things you can give Naomi, and I think you do very well with her, given our circumstances, but…” he waved towards the holoimages of Samantha’s husband. “If she is only able to learn his face via holoimages, and to learn of his actions via stories, wouldn’t it be better to have more people telling her stories? More people, giving her more to learn about her father, more ways to get to know him _better_ , even so far away from him?”

Samantha bit the inside of her cheek, thinking. He wasn’t wrong, and she knew it, but, for entirely selfish reasons, she didn’t like it. “Am I correct in assuming that the stories you two would tell her, though, would reveal…” she sighed, hating how self-centered it felt to even be asking the question. “My past with the Maquis?”

Commander Chakotay swallowed, patiently answering, “Yes.”

Beside him, Lieutenant Torres drew in a deep breath, which Samantha took to be her way of trying to remain calm. “But the picture’s bigger than that right now, or at least it should be,” the engineer pointed out, not unkindly. “Naomi… That is, has Naomi shared with you that she sometimes feels isolated from the crew? She knows this is her home and that we’re her family – of a sort – of course, but—”

“She explained it as feeling a little split in half,” Samantha supplemented quietly. “Like there’s a part of her that’s missing in a way that sometimes makes her feel as if her whole self doesn’t fit in here all the time.”

“Exactly,” Lieutenant Torres said, looking relieved that Samantha knew what she was talking about. “Chakotay and I are only suggesting that maybe, if we tell her stories of the man that we knew, it could… merge those split halves into a happier Naomi, because it makes Gres seem like he – and in that way her heritage – has even had a real impact on some of the members of this crew.”

“B’Elanna’s making this bigger than I am,” Commander Chakotay said with a lopsided smile. “I just think it would be nice for Naomi to be able to hear more about her father, and I think that Naomi’s getting to the age where if you opted to ask her to keep your past a secret, she would be able to do that.”

Samantha nodded, knowing that he was right about that, too. “Okay,” she said with a wary smile of her own. “I don’t see where it could do any _harm_ ; let’s try it.”

* * *

As Naomi laid down in bed the next night, her mom sat down on the edge of her bed as she remarked, “You know, you’re getting so big, so fast.”

Naomi smiled at her mom. “You say that all the time.”

“Because it’s true all the time,” Ensign Wildman replied with a teasing smile that slipped away into a far more serious expression as her mom took Naomi’s hand on top of her blanket. “Listen, Naomi, I have something I want to tell you, but I need you to try your very best to try and keep it a secret, okay?”

“Okay,” Naomi answered uncertainly, not sure if she should be worried _and_ curious, or only curious.

“You’ve heard that Neelix wasn’t always a part of _Voyager_ ’s crew, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you know that Commander Chakotay, Lieutenant Torres, Crewman Dalby, and some of the others weren’t always aboard _Voyager_ , too?”

“Yeah,” Naomi repeated. “They were Maquis, until they joined us on _Voyager_ before I was born.”

“And do you know what it means – maybe what it _meant_ – to be Maquis?”

Here Naomi paused, not sure why her mom still seemed so… reserved, and equally unsure how to answer the question. She shrugged. “Nobody’s explained it to me exactly. I know from school that the Federation was fighting the Cardassians, and that the Maquis weren’t happy with how things turned out, so they tried to make things go the way they wanted, tried to keep certain places out from under Cardassian control.”

Her mom nodded. “That’s a pretty good explanation, yes. Do you… Naomi, do you understand that a lot of people think of the Maquis as bad people?”

Naomi shrugged again, growing increasingly uncomfortable, and unsure why her mom was talking about this. She nodded, but pointed out, “But Lieutenant Torres and the others aren’t Maquis anymore; they’re not bad people anymore.”

“I know that,” her mom rushed to assure her, squeezing her hand and giving her a gentle smile as she asked, “So, it doesn’t bother you that ‘Lieutenant Torres and the others’ _were_ Maquis once?”

Naomi shook her head. “No.”

“Good.” Ensign Wildman sighed softly before asking Naomi with worried eyes, “Would it bother you if I told you _I_ had been Maquis once?”

Naomi paused, thinking through that startling idea. “Like… you fought people? On the _Val Jean_?”

“Not… really,” Ensign Wildman corrected. “I was their medic; I didn’t fight, but I helped heal those that did. And I wasn’t on the _Val Jean_ ; I was on the ship Commander Chakotay had before that, the _Karma_.”

“You served in the Maquis with Commander Chakotay?” Naomi asked, already growing more curious as she absorbed that information.

“I served under him, yes; he was my captain at that time.”

_ Which was interesting, but something literally wasn’t adding up,  _ Naomi thought, mentally running through the dates and what very little she knew of her parents’ past.

Seeing her daughter’s eyebrows draw together, Naomi’s mom asked, “You’re thinking. What is it?”

“Is that where you met Dad?” Naomi asked bluntly, before she could think better of it, before she could remind herself that she didn’t want to talk about him if it would make her mom sad. Except… she really _did_ want to talk about him.

“Yes, it is,” her mom answered with a hesitant smile.

“He was Maquis too?”

Ensign Wildman nodded.

The next thought hit Naomi so hard she actually gasped as she asked, “Does anyone else aboard _Voyager_ know him? Did any of the other Maquis work with him, too?”

“A couple of them,” her mom replied, that strange little smile still in place.

“Who?”

“Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres.”

Naomi went very still, trying to decide how she felt about that revelation. She had no reason to believe that Commander Chakotay would talk to her about her dad… _but Lieutenant Torres? Lieutenant Torres, who talked to her with growing frequency about her mixed heritage and Ktarians and learning more about her people… why wouldn’t she tell Naomi more about her own_ father _if she could?_

The question must’ve been in Naomi’s eyes, because her mom reached for her hand as she said, “Naomi, please try to understand, being Maquis… isn’t something I ever wanted to talk about here on _Voyager_ , so I asked Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres not to talk about it either. If you’re upset with them, don’t be. You can be upset with me, because I asked them not to talk about our past together. At least… not until now. They’ve convinced me that it would be a good idea for them to talk to you about your dad, to tell you some stories about him. If you would like that?”

Naomi was still upset with Lieutenant Torres – and now a little upset with her mom, too – but she was nowhere near unhappy enough with them to turn down more information about her _dad_. She nodded eagerly enough, agreeing, “Okay.”

Her mom squeezed her hand and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Good. I’ll tell them you agreed, and see if we can set up a time this week for them to come over, okay?” Naomi nodded as her mom leaned in to kiss her forehead, murmuring, “Good night, sweetheart, and sweet dreams. I love you.”

“Good night, Mom. I love you, too,” Naomi replied, getting comfortable beneath her covers even though she already knew that she was now thinking too much about her parents and Lieutenant Torres and the stories that she and the commander might tell to go to sleep any time soon.

* * *

Later in the week, as promised, Ensign Wildman let Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres into hers and Naomi’s quarters with a thin smile. Naomi was sitting on the couch, pretending to read a PADD Seven of Nine had loaned her as she listened to the adults as they came in. Her mom said something in a whisper about “unhappy,” but Naomi didn’t catch any other words, and the commander and lieutenant came in and sat down across from her regardless.

“Hi,” Lieutenant Torres attempted, trying to catch Naomi’s eye.

“Hi,” Naomi repeated, still feeling a confusing knot of emotions in her stomach as she continued looking at her PADD. Very unlike the usual respect she strove to give the senior officers – particularly _these_ senior officers.

“Hey, be polite; they’re here to talk to you,” her mom reminded her, speaking quiet but firm as she sat down beside Naomi and took the PADD from her.

“Your mom said she told you why we’re here,” Commander Chakotay said when Naomi finally looked up at him.

“M-hm.”

He narrowed his eyes at her a little, studying her as he pointed out, “But she also mentioned that you weren’t very happy with Lieutenant Torres and I for not doing this sooner.”

Naomi shrugged, telling the commander honestly, “I’m not upset at you.” And she wasn’t upset at _him_ ; she knew he was very, very busy, and very high-ranking with lots of responsibilities, and she had no reason to believe that he should’ve made time for her.

“Are you upset with _me_ , then?” Lieutenant Torres asked, confusion flashing through her eyes.

Naomi worried at her bottom lip, staring at her hands in her lap as she said quietly, “I… have cried to you, about my dad, about not fitting in—”

“Naomi,” her mom began with that same gentle firmness. “I—”

“I know,” Naomi interrupted, looking over at her. “You asked her not to say anything. I know. And… if you didn’t want people to know you were Maquis… okay. I just… I don’t like it.” She turned back to Lieutenant Torres, saying, “I don’t like that you didn’t say anything before now… but I don’t like being mad at you, either.”

Lieutenant Torres crossed her arms, sighing before she asked Naomi, “So, are you going to give up being mad at me, so that I can tell you what I remember about your dad now, instead of being mad about a past we can’t change?” She gave Naomi a thin smile as she pointed out, “Seems like a better way to spend the evening, I think.”

Naomi sighed too, trying to vent her anger with the gesture before she nodded, and gave Lieutenant Torres a thin smile of her own. “Alright.”

“Perfect. Now,” Lieutenant Torres curled her legs up onto the couch, getting comfortable as she asked, “What do you want to hear first: wacky work stories from missions we were on together, or that gross, mushy time when your dad tried to make the ‘perfect date’ for your mom?”

“Some of the brave things and smart decisions he made on my bridge?” Commander Chakotay offered as well. “The three of us worked together for a while; we’ve got a lot of stories to tell.”

Already Naomi’s anger over the past was truly forgotten in favor of the stories being offered in the present, and her eyes glittered as she admitted, “I want to hear them all!”

“Then let’s just start at the beginning,” Commander Chakotay said sensibly. “I met your dad on Ktaris II—”

* * *

They talked for hours as her mom let her stay up past her bedtime, and Naomi fell asleep curled against her mom’s side, and listening to the commanding officers tell her stories about her dad.

She woke up as her mom laid her down in her bed, and as the covers were pulled over Naomi, she asked, “Where are Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres?”

“You fell asleep, sweetheart, and it’s far past your bedtime, so they left.”

“Oh,” Naomi mumbled, still not quite awake. “Okay.” Yet, propped herself up on her elbows as she suddenly thought of something. “What about you, Mom?” she asked cautiously.

“What about me?” Ensign Wildman asked, still leaning over Naomi’s bed.

“Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Torres told me stories about Dad, but… you didn’t.” Carefully, worried that she might start to see the old pain start to creep into her mom’s eyes, Naomi asked, “Can you tell me a bedtime story about him? Then I’ll go to sleep, I promise.”

“A bedtime story?” her mom repeated. “I’m not sure I know any proper ‘bedtime’ stories about him.”

“Any story about him counts,” Naomi decided hopefully. “It doesn’t have to be a story; I just want to know one more thing about him before I go to bed.”

Her mom turned thoughtful, not sad, as she sat down on the edge of Naomi’s bed once again, and Naomi suddenly wondered if maybe hearing about the man missing from both of their lives had been good for _her_ too. “Okay,” her mom decided. “Your Dad, Gres, likes history, and antiques and artifacts, because he says they help make history come alive. He especially likes far ancient history and learning what he can about the way people lived twenty-three hundred years ago – how they dressed, how they lived, what they believed about science and religion and philosophy. Everything.” Her mom smiled at her, noting, “He can be just as curious as you are.” Naomi grinned as her mom continued, “He especially likes the stories of the Greek gods – the gods worshipped by a far ancient human culture. I don’t know why, I think they’re strange, and corny, but he’s always found them amusing, and sometimes inspiring, I guess. So that’s,” she shrugged, offered Naomi a little smile. “One more thing about him that you know about your dad now. In fact,” her smile became bittersweet as she remembered, “One of the… things he used to call me was after a Greek goddess. He liked to call me ‘m’lady’ when he wanted to make me feel special sometimes. Other times, he would call me ‘Aceso,’ who, as he explained to me, was the goddess of healing.”

Naomi grinned. “He called you a lady _and_ a goddess?” She paused, all but whispering with a little more solemnity, “He really loves you, doesn’t he?”

That comment made her mom’s eyes glassy as she replied, “He really does, yes – just as I love him…” she reached down, tracing a fingertip around Naomi’s horns as she’d done to comfort her when she was younger, and Naomi’s eyes slid closed at the soothing feeling as her mom added, “And just as I know he already loves you, too. Very much.” Ensign Wildman cleared her throat, standing from the bedside as she said sweetly, “Now, you got _two_ facts just then, so it’s definitely time for you to go to sleep. Good night again, Naomi. You are very loved.”

This time, her mom actually moved away and turned out the light as Naomi replied, “Good night, Mom,” and then, with a little uncertainty, “I love you both, too. And Mom?” she added as the door to her room began to slide closed. “Thank you for asking the commander and lieutenant over. I really liked their stories.”

“I did, too,” her mom answered with a thread of what might’ve been surprise in her tone. “Would you like to do it again sometime?”

“Definitely,” Naomi answered before closing her eyes for the night with a smile on her face and imaginary scenarios of her dad running through her mind.


End file.
